


Uh, Need Help There, Miss?

by dwaekki



Category: Stray Kids (Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Grocery Store, F/M, Grocery Shopping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 04:22:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17093960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dwaekki/pseuds/dwaekki
Summary: In which Chaeyoung tries to reach for a bottle of sesame oil some genius placed on the topmost shelf, but the only help she's being offered comes from a guy who isn't very gifted in the height department himself.





	Uh, Need Help There, Miss?

Why someone would put something as essential as sesame oil on the topmost shelf in a grocery store, Chaeyoung would probably never know. As she stood on her toes and stretched her arms as high as she could, she tried to rationalize the choice this grocery made. Surely, someone thought of the vertically-challenged. Did the population this backwater town just happen to consist purely of tall people? The more she thought about it, the more infuriated she became. And desperate to get grocery shopping over and done with before she drew attention. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with anyone, especially not after countless attempts in the span of a few minutes to reach the top shelf. 

She let out a loud groan as she landed back on the floor from her latest attempt to jump up and grab one of the bottles neatly lined up on top. In a desperate move, she stepped onto the bottom shelf, lodging her feet between a couple of tubs of gochujang, and pushed herself up. A small grin crept up her lips as her fingers brushed the bottom of one of the bottles.  _ Just a bit more _ , she thought, while gingerly raising her heels to raise herself up further. It was a delicate situation, she could lose her balance or the rickety bottom shelf she placed her weight upon could give way, despite her tiny stature. She put all her concentration on the bottle.  _ Focus, focus. And then-- _

“Uh, need help there, miss?”

The loud, nasal voice that broke the silence was enough to ruin Chaeyoung’s concentration. She clumsily stepped back from the shelf in surprise, almost losing her balance in the process. She turned to the owner of the voice. A quick glance was all she needed to tell that they were male, and they were probably not older than her.

“No, thank you. Please mind your own business,” she hissed with feigned politeness. The guy, she guessed, was one of the grocer’s workers, judging by the mop he held in his hand.

“It is my business to help you,” he replied in a nonchalant tone. His nasal voice grated on Chaeyoung’s nerves, and much to her annoyance, he continued to speak. “I mean, that’s what I’m paid to do here.”

“No, thank you,” she answered him between gritted teeth, despite her own resolve to get the bottle of sesame oil on her own wavering. She also realized the worker wasn’t very gifted in the height department himself, he was probably only a head taller than her at most. She couldn’t imagine him faring much better than her; asking him for help would waste both their time.

“Uh, if you cause a mess, the owners will think there was no one around to help out and one of us will get fired,” he replied, his tone becoming a lot more animated. “Probably me. I’m the new guy. Can your conscience stomach the idea of a struggling college student getting fired because you were being too stubborn?”

“You’re not giving up, are you?” she asked him, letting out an exasperated sigh.

“I only wish to do my job,” he answered with a shrug, and from what Chaeyoung could tell, a smug look on his face.

Annoyed, she stepped off the bottom shelf, and distanced herself from it as far as possible. There seemed to be no other way to make the worker go away other than let him help her, and there was no reason for her to drag this out. “Okay, go ahead, then. Please.” As much as she tried to remain polite, she couldn’t hide the edge in her voice. The worker didn’t seem to mind this, however. He immediately turned around and approached her eagerly.

“My pleasure, miss,” he answered with a grin that Chaeyoung hoped she’d never have to see see again.  He set the mop in his hands aside, then positioned himself in front of the shelf. Chaeyoung watched quietly as he first tried to reach the top shelf by just raising his arm, which as she expected, wasn’t enough.

“Ah, they indeed placed them a  _ little _ high up,” he remarked, when he had seemed to realize his hand wasn’t even brushing against the top shelf. “Just a little, though. We’ll manage, we’ll manage.” It sounded like he was assuring himself more than he was assuring her, though.

She watched him stand on his toes and make a good number of attempts to reach the bottle of sesame oil, but to no avail. He then switched strategies and jumped up, but that worked for him only as well as it did for Chaeyoung. With his back turned towards her as he tried jumping several times, she covered her mouth to hide the fact that she was trying with all her being to not laugh out him out loud..

Soon enough, he had seemingly lost his cool. “Aish, yah, you little shits, get down here!” he grumbled at the inanimate objects on the top shelf, after his last attempt at jumping failed unsurprisingly.

Chaeyoung couldn’t help but let out a snort, no longer able to hide her amusement at all of this.  “Oh dear sir, please don’t tire yourself out too much on my behalf,” she teased.

“Don’t worry about it, miss,” he answered without looking at her. It was his turn to speak between gritted teeth. Just at Chaeyoung had done earlier, he lodged his feet between the tubs of gochujang to use the bottom shelf as a stool. He then tried again to reach for the top shelf, but failed just as miserably as she did earlier. He even tried to jump from the the bottom shelf -- which Chaeyoung admittedly felt a little worried about -- but it was still no use.

Chaeyoung felt this was getting ridiculous. How long had she been in that aisle already anyway? “You know what, forget it, it’s fine,” she said in the most pleasant tone she could muster while she picked up her basket of groceries and her backpack from the floor. The worker didn’t seem to hear her. “I’ll put in a good word for you if I run into your manager at the counter even.”

He turned to her, with his mouth half open as if he was about to say something. He was interrupted, however, by a voice from the end of the aisle. Chaeyoung saw another worker approaching them.

“Yah, Changbin-hyung, we’ve been looking for you.” There was a frown on the worker’s face. “What are you doing here?” Chaeyoung was only relieved to find he was tall and maybe he could get the bottle of sesame oil she needed and get this whole thing over and done with.

“Trying to reach that,” Changbin pointed at the sesame oil bottles on the top shelf and sighed exasperatedly. “Who the hell can reach that high other than you, Hyunjin? Do they call you every time someone looks for sesame oil?”

Instead of answering, Hyunjin burst out laughing, and then pulled out a bottle of sesame oil from the second shelf. “They’re just here, where the hell were you looking?” Chaeyoung felt her face heat up at the revelation, even more so while the worker continued to explain. “Those up there are only for when the ones here run out.” He gave Changbin a light slap on the back and continued to laugh, before he noticed that Chaeyoung was there.

“Ah miss, were you looking for this?” He handed her the bottle of sesame oil, which Chaeyoung hesitantly took, still unable to believe how she missed that shelf entirely. “Sorry about our colleague for not looking where he should be looking,” he told her with a grin, each word feeling like a slap across the face. It was her who wasn’t looking properly in the first place. “Sometimes he just does things that aren’t very--”

“Yah! Of course I didn’t see it on a lower shelf! Short people are too used to looking up all the time!” Changbin fired back without letting Hyunjin finish, looking just about as embarrassed as Chaeyoung was. Hyunjin only laughed some more in response.  

The explanation was ridiculous, but Chaeyoung found herself in agreement with it. “Actually, he’s right,” Chaeyoung said, glaring as she looked up to Hyunjin, and cutting his laughter short. “It’s not something to laugh at, you know.” Her voice remained calm, yet her tone was firm. It was a tone she had practiced for a long time to intimidate people when needed, knowing full well her stature wouldn’t work for that. “Do you think short people  _ choose _ to be short?”

The grin on Hyunjin’s face disappeared and in a split second he was bowing his head to Chaeyoung. “Sorry, Miss, sorry, please forgive me for what I said. I… I’ve never really thought of it that way before.” He took a step back and bowed again, even more deeply than the previous one. Chaeyoung noticed his ears had turned red, which made her almost laugh out loud. “Uh, please have a nice day...” With that, he turned around and walked briskly out of the aisle.

“That was...” Changbin was watching Hyunjin disappear, blinking. “That was something, woah.”

Chaeyoung only chuckled in return, with a small, proud grin on her face. “You weren’t so bad yourself. Short people have to look up all the time, huh? Would you mind if I took that one?”  

Changbin turned to her and shook his head. “No, by all means, you can take it.” He smiled at her and cleared his throat. “You can take my number too, if you like.”

She responded to his offer with the same glare she had given Hyunjin earlier. Changbin took a step back.

“I mean, is there anything else I can help you with, Miss?”

**Author's Note:**

> The idea came from a prompt that went, "you’re trying to reach the top shelf and I know you’re short but please ask for help instead of climbing shelves/using books as stools/getting a running start AU" and I was like hm, what if it was about two short people...


End file.
